The Wisconsin Badgers had a good week of action, beating the Maryland Terrapins and Iowa Hawkeyes to improve to 13-5 and 7-1 in the Big Ten.
In addition, the NCAA committee gave out their first Top 16 rankings, and the Badgers were placed at No. 4, ahead of their ranking in the AVCA Top 25, with their strength of schedule seemingly being a key factor.
In his weekly press conference, head coach Kelly Sheffield spoke to reporters, breaking down the two wins, the transfer portal window news, Wisconsin’s
strength of schedule, and more.
Here’s everything Sheffield said ahead of Wisconsin’s games with Washington and Michigan this week.
Opening Statement
Great morning, everyone. I had what I consider a pretty successful weekend. Happy with the progress and how we played for the most part against Maryland and Iowa. And I thought our middles had some big-time weekends and put up some really nice numbers. I thought, with Jaela [Auguste] and Lynney [Tarnow], really, really good numbers from Decelise [Champion] as well over the weekend. Really happy with the progress that we’re making with our backcourt. Anna [Bardaro] and Kristen [Simon] had very, very good weekends. And got Washington and Michigan in front of us this week. And we’ll get after that after players have a day off today.
On transfer portal window recommendations…
I would say our transfer portal window is a source of frustration with a lot of people [in] a lot of sports. There’s not a perfect place of it, but there are places that are more wrong. I think putting it in while people are still playing, no matter how many people are still playing, is very, very challenging for those athletes. It is very, very stressful for those athletes, extremely stressful for those athletes. We lived in that space last year. The D1 Council, I think, is voting on for our sport, I think, this week or very, very soon if we’re going to keep the same window but just make it a little bit shorter.
When you have players that they think another situation may be better for them, then they’re kind of really, really torn for those teams that are still proceeding in the NCAA tournament. You want to be really, really good teammates. You want to be good for the program. But yet every day that the portal is open, those players know that they are losing out on opportunities. And so it’s tough for those guys. It’s, to me, having a cooling-off period or a period of reflection after the season makes a whole lot of sense. Our sport could be following the football model. They’re having theirs after the holidays, and I think the Monday after January, football is still playing, but, at some point you’ve got to align with the academic calendar. So they decided to move it back as far as they possibly can and still be able to get people in the spring.
It feels like that is appropriate, the ability to get people in and allow everybody to celebrate and be a part of the best part of our season is the NCAA Tournament, and just be able to put all of their energies there. Let the coaches put their energies there. Let the players put all their energies into that. Then, once you’re done, then you can kind of figure out what your future is. Doesn’t look like we’re wanting to go that direction because, I don’t know, and I get it, teams that their seasons are over, they want to get moving on to the next season. There’s an urgency, and there’s excitement to move on to that. And for the players that are done with their season. But like I said, there’s nothing perfect. All that I know is when you talk about the coaches that are typically still playing and have been in that, there is not a single coach in the country that if they were in our situation that would think that would be good for any of the players. So hopefully we’re able to move it back.
The more I’m into this, maybe it makes sense to do it after the end of spring. But I think every winter sport has theirs after the championship. Most of the fall sports have it after their championship, except for us, and I believe the soccer. So I don’t know, everybody’s still trying to figure out, everybody’s still trying to figure out. I hope there’s still time on the clock for us to move ours back after the championship.
On strength of schedule being recognized by NCAA initial seeding…
I feel like it’s worked to our benefit to improve our team and be able to make meaningful progress. But it’s hard. I mean, our schedule and the amount of times we’ve been away from home, the in-depth of the video they’re what we’re watching because there’s a lot of rich stuff. It’s been a challenge for our players, and I’m really proud of the way that they’ve handled that. Certainly from a metrics and an RPI standpoint, the committee unveiled their 16 last night. It’s a snapshot in time. They’ve been saying for years that scheduling matters. Winning against elite opponents matters. I think we’ve had 4 wins against teams that were in that top 16. I think there might have been maybe one team in the country that’s had more.
We’re not a perfect team. We’re trying, we’re working to get better. And we’re headed in that direction. It’s a really, really young team. It’s a really young team. And we have grinded and we fought, and we’ve gotten a little bit better. And certainly the NCAA committee has felt like, hey, what we’ve done so far and what we’ve put on, what our results have been, have been one of the top programs in the country. I think you can make a lot of argument of where that range is. I think there’s probably a range for us, whether it’s 3 or somewhere probably between 3 and 7. It’s really kind of a thin margin with a lot of those teams in that range. But, you know, proud of the direction that we’re going.
On why Halle Thompson started both matchups this week…
Yeah, Halle works her tail off. I mean, she is in the gym as much, if not more, than anybody on our team. You’d love to see that from— not from anybody, but, you know, your young players have just that’s one thing that you don’t have to work on with her is work ethic. She probably dives as much into film as just about anybody on our team as well. And so there’s an improvement that is happening. Friday night, I think Audrey was kind of dealing with getting a little bit of swelling in her knee, and we just felt like, hey, let’s, let’s not push this. Let’s kind of get that under control. And Halle’s been, been playing at a level in practice the past weeks and a couple weeks and stacking days that we felt like we’d be in pretty good hands if we were making that switch.
On if Jaela Auguste is starting to reach her potential after her injury…
Yeah, I mean, for sure. She was out with an ab strain for what a while, right? And then after she got back, leading into when she was out, we were kind of managing her reps a little bit because she was starting to feel some stuff, and we were like, all right, let’s be careful. Then, we held her out for a while, and then when she got back in, we’re still trying to be kind of cautious of how we’re easing back in. And the connection with her and Charlie wasn’t there. I mean, we were all kind of seeing this. She was kind of a little bit frustrated. And so, but you’re not getting the reps on that. And you’re kind of trying to manage her frustration a little bit, because she was most definitely frustrated.
We had a talk last week, and two of us, and I said, ‘All right, here, I know you’re frustrated a little bit, but let’s put on some proper perspective.’ So we pulled up, you know, her stats from last year against top 25 competition, and she was hitting .297 (or .298) against Top 25 competition. She was hitting .397 against Top 25 teams this year. I say that right? Top 25 both times. So it’s an it’s an apples-apples [comparison]. She’s hitting almost 100 points higher this year, and you know the mind is the the mind, can play tricks on you a little bit, and the frustration can sometimes make things bigger than what they are. And she’s turning in the right way.
We’re able to rub some things out, and I think this weekend, you’re seeing what we all were hoping that we would see, what she was hoping that she’d see out of herself as well, is a player that is very competitive, very athletic, and that can be an awful handful. What I loved about her match yesterday is just how she’s working the entire court. I mean, it wasn’t just one shot over and over again. I mean, she was working different depths, she was working different angles, she was working different, and most of it was slides behind the setter and at 3 different points of contact, hitting in serve receive and transition. We’re a better team. Everybody on our team is better when Jaela’s playing like that.
On what makes her slide attack so difficult to defend…
Yeah, she gets off the floor fast, she gets on the ball fast. And, you know, she’s got a little bit smarter with the depths that she’s hitting. I would say, in the spring she was just wanting to hit everything down. But it makes it even more difficult when you’re occasionally mixing in a tip when you’re working at a little bit different depths as well. Her ability to get on the ball fast is pretty elite.
On how the Big Ten got so deep as a conference…
Yeah, it didn’t just get to be a deep volleyball conference. It’s been like that for a while, but it’s better than [it was]. Man, last year I felt like the league was down a little bit. We felt that going in and during and kind of coming out of that, it is so much stronger this year. It is so much stronger. I don’t think it’s ever been better. They’re just obviously what we’re all seeing is just a, I don’t know if it’s an earthquake, but certainly the ground is changing.
I think this is the first time in our sports history, I think it was a couple weeks ago, that there wasn’t a school outside of the Power 4 right now, or it was Power 5 when the PAC was around, that there wasn’t a single program in the top 25 out of those conferences. That’s never happened, not in a single week in the history of our sport. And so you’re seeing, to me, you know, somebody that spent a lot of time in other conferences that would probably fit in that window, somebody that grew up watching, also Mid-American Conference guy, just watching that and spending 7 years coaching in the America East and spending 5 years in the A-10, that makes me sad, you know, that part of that. But there’s an investment that is just happening, not just for players and staffs, but marketing and making elite fan experiences. And, obviously the transfer portal has made it a little bit easier for some people to move.
But nobody’s taken the conference from top to bottom more serious than our league. And I don’t know how— if people realize, you know, I was saying this, I think maybe yesterday on the radio or something, but I was talking to a head coach that, let’s just say, they’re easily in the top 10. And that coach felt like their team was getting worse the past few weeks because of the level of competition that they were seeing, the lower part of their conference. And I don’t know if people realize how good the bottom half of our conference is almost every year. That was the thing that blew me away when I got in the Big Ten is that you look at these conference records in volleyball. And, you know, there’s 350 Division I programs, but you see the lower half, and you just think, man, the record just isn’t very good. That just doesn’t happen in our sport.
When you’re going and playing the people that are in the bottom in the Big Ten, you’re not getting worse as a team. There’s so much talent, and the coaching is good, and what they’re able to do to you, and against you really has you sitting up straight. And so just every week that you’re just in that grind and you see yesterday, 11 out of the 16, or what was it, 7 out of the 16, I mean, that’s amazing.
And I don’t know, there’s too many of them that you’d sit there and say, I’m not sure they belong there. You could probably make a little bit of an argument of maybe some teams, probably Arizona State not making it would kind of surprise me, but, you know, I get it. They’ve had some tough losses. You can say, maybe a couple other schools in the Big Ten. I don’t know. They’re questionable. But when you’re slicing hairs of teams of whether they’re 16th or 18th. Bottom line, they’re elite, and the conference, this is as good as it’s ever been.
